How-To Geek

I've been creating content for more than 20 years, and the tools have changed a lot in that time. In many ways, they're better than ever. It's easier to record a screen, capture video, clean up a rough audio track, cut together a simple edit, and get a file into the format I need. The problem is that many of the tools built for that work have also gotten more expensive, especially as more companies have moved toward subscriptions.

You’ve probably noticed that your monthly subscription costs keep creeping up. Within the last few years, most of my favorite services hiked their prices.

Linux desktop environments have never been better. Modern distributions offer polished graphical interfaces, excellent software stores, and user-friendly applications that make it possible to accomplish almost anything without touching a terminal.

Several months after the first peek, the Google Home Speaker is finally on sale. It promises to be a good deal and a much-needed update to the company's smart speaker line, although you might need a Gemini subscription to make the most of it.

For a few years now, I've been getting into physical media like it's nobody's business. I had a small collection that I got rid of (and partially lost) leading up to the first time I subscribed to Netflix, but I felt no pressure to own anything in physical form during the streaming honeymoon phase.

Devices that once shipped with awkward barrel plugs are now switching to USB-C, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s now something I look for whenever I buy everyday gadgets that I know I’ll have to plug in and recharge regularly.

I write about tech for a living and spend much of my life being tech support for various family members. That’s why I was completely ashamed about how long it took me to figure out how to solve a basic volume issue in both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

YouTube is the streaming platform I use the most, both as part of my job and just for my own entertainment and education.

"Just install Linux" is popular advice when someone needs to squeeze a little bit more life out of an old PC. It also leads many to believe that any old computer, no matter how ancient, can be revived by simply installing any Linux distribution on it. However, that isn't really true—lightweight options exist, but a large share of modern distros are actually fairly demanding.

Giving up dedicated productivity apps sounds like chaos, but switching to Excel replaced my entire task management setup. I built a personalized to-do system that recreates the core features of premium task apps using Excel's built-in tools, with no extra subscriptions.

Telemetry apps that log throttle position, brake pressure, and lap times have mostly lived in the sports car world. Porsche's Track Precision app and Chevrolet's Performance Data Recorder both built loyal followings among enthusiasts who wanted hard proof, not just a feeling, when it came to lap times, G-forces, braking points, and cornering lines.

You might just know how well Valve's long-awaited Steam Machine performs. How-To Geek has found benchmarks for the "Valve Fremont" (aka Steam Machine) online ahead of its summer release, and it's not a cutting-edge desktop PC — though that doesn't tell the whole story.

Dragons are about to eat your weekend. HBO Max's House of the Dragon returns for season 3 on June 21, and depending on who you ask, it's the most anticipated thing landing on any streaming service all year. The small catch, though: it arrives on the last day of this post's window, which makes this week more about prepping—rewatching season two (or at least the last few episodes), remembering which Targaryen wants which other Targaryen dead, names, illegitimate children, etc. But if Westeros isn't your favorite destination, HBO Max is hardly short on other new shows to watch, either.

Freeing up space on a PC sounds easy enough to do. Maybe you'll delete some old files, or maybe you'll bring an old drive back to life and let it deal with all the clutter while your main SSD deals with the important stuff. Both of those options are good, but they're not exactly the first thing people tend to go for; at least not always.

Cordless power tools come in a wide variety of types and colors, and you've likely heard that many of your favorite brands are made or owned by the same large company. Yes, one company owns both Ryobi and Milwaukee, but that doesn't mean they're the same.

If you’re still relying on a mess of browser tabs, airline emails, and your own memory to keep a trip together, you’re doing far more work than necessary. There are dozens of travel apps, and most of them will disappoint you by day two. I’ve installed and deleted more than I can count.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has logged more than 300 safety recalls across more than 100 manufacturers so far in 2026. Here is every passenger car, truck, and SUV recall NHTSA has filed in June 2026 so far, organized by automaker, along with what each one means if you currently own one of these vehicles.

As expected, Android 17 has officially gone stable, and that includes Wear OS 7. The update is rolling out today to Pixel phones and Pixel Watch devices—expect Samsung Galaxy and other Android phones to start getting the update next month. Let’s take a look at what’s included.

What makes a fantastic miniseries on Netflix or HBO Max? Does the miniseries have a compelling storyline to follow over the course of at least eight episodes? Were the right actors cast in their respective roles? It sounds simple, but you'd be surprised by how many networks mess up at least one of those components, sometimes both.

Google has started rolling out its previously teased Pixel Drop feature update for June 2026 alongside the release of Android 17, and it's big news if you've wanted to generate more than just still images using Gemini — or if you're simply a heavy multitasker.